5k
double bridge + tunnel of trees
53 degrees / light rain
It’s raining most of the day, but I managed to get out to the gorge and run without getting too wet. For the first time in 2 months (I checked my log entries), I listened to music: Beck, Nur-d, Harry Styles, ACDC, Billie Eilish. An excellent distraction.
10 Things I Noticed
- someone in shorts (like me), running fast and effortlessly
- 2 women running slow and steady and spreading across the walking path
- a runner with a dog
- a walker with a dog
- an older man, half running, half walking
- the big cracks in the asphalt from the savanna to 44th street, have rings of white spray paint around them that have recently been redone. The crack with the ring that looks like a tube sock seems to have shifted a bit farther from the walking path, closer to the bike path
- 1 stone stacked on another, a 3rd stone beside them on the ancient boulder
- more light green leaves on the trees in the floodplain forest
- no headlings on the cars driving on the river road
- an older man, slowly jogging on edmund. As I approached him, I waved. He said something but I couldn’t hear it with my headphones on
It’s Mother’s Day, and ever since my mom died in 2009, I haven’t liked this holiday. But yesterday, Scott and I went to Gustavus to take our son out for lunch (hooray for warm weather and patios!) and to pick up some of his stuff before he moves out of his dorm and returns home in two weeks, and he was so happy and kind and smart and excited about life that I’m not sad today but grateful and hopeful. What a wonderful human he is! His energy is infectious and inspiring and makes me want to be my better, happier, hopeful self, even in the midst of so much terribleness in the world. Such a great gift for Mother’s Day!
Speaking of energy I need, I want to be the believing bird in this poem:
For the Bird Singing before Dawn/ Kim Stafford
Some people presume to be hopeful
when there is no evidence for hope,
to be happy when there is no cause.
Let me say now, I’m with them.
In deep darkness on a cold twig
in a dangerous world, one first
little fluff lets out a peep, a warble,
a song—and in a little while, behold:
the first glimmer comes, then a glow
filters through the misty trees,
then the bold sun rises, then
everyone starts bustling about.
And that first crazy optimist, can we
forgive her for thinking, dawn by dawn,
“Hey, I made that happen!
And oh, life is so fine.”